guerillagirl's (ux) design journal

About segregating research and design (and other problems)

“The split of the design teams into researchers and designers might be hampering effective software development. To truly understand the user, designers need to develop empathy. They, and other team members, can gain this by conducting user research or usability studies—or just by being present during research efforts. This locks in the user’s successes and difficulties and gives the designer a sense of what is truly important, which will pay off in more targeted designs. Besides benefits to the designers, regular user research keeps a company informed of user expectations and behavior. If these benefits were widely understood, wouldn’t companies pay more than lip service to empathy and user research?”

Hello, my name is Stefanie. I am a designer specialized in UX living in Berlin while running my own design studio. Besides I study psychology and co-founded the Berlin chapter of the Ladies that UX community. My basic design phiolosophy/approach is, that I think that interacting with a computer is not that different to interacting with another human being. This is one of the recurring topics of this blog – which is my home on the internet since 2008. Email me if you want to say hello. :)